Jumpstart Digest: Recent News, Commentary, and Ideas

Featured ArticleWhy Should the Arts be Publicly Funded?Theatre Communications Group
Playwright J.T. Rogers and economist Eric Helland disagree on the efficacy of public funding for the arts. New Dramatists in New York City, recently hosted the debate, calling it “Beyond the Culture Wars: Arts Funding in America, Part 2.”

NEWS & OPINION

New York City Ballet Makes Its Own Web SeriesThe New York Times
What does it really take to be a dancer in New York City Ballet? In city.ballet., a new web series to be released by AOL On Originals, key ingredients are strength, grit, talent and perseverance. Having a life outside ballet is not a bad idea. And when all else fails, reach for the wine.

Menahem Pressler: On Following Your HeartThe Bulletproof Musician (blog)
Dr. Noa Kageyama talks with Distinguished Professor Menahem Pressler about what it takes to make great performances a consistent reality.

SubCulture Gives Home to NY Philharmonic’s Contact! SeriesNew York Times: Steve Smith
The New York Philharmonic’s Contact! series finds a new home at the Culture Project on Bleecker Street in the East Village. Like Le Poisson Rouge, just a few blocks down the street, SubCulture embraces a range of styles, classical music included.

Wait, More Music Awards?The New York Times
Yes, but these are for music (and videos) on YouTube, and the broadcast is a webcast – so it’s totally different.

Some Arts Organizations Deserve To Fail, Says Terry TeachoutThe Wall Street Journal
“The strike-bound [sic] Minnesota Orchestra is all but dead. New York City Opera has filed for bankruptcy. I know, you’ve heard it before, but bear with me, OK? What we’re seeing here is not a string of isolated high-culture horror stories but something far more significant – something that requires a different kind of response.”

Commentary: A Whole New Ballgame in Arts HiringTheatre Bay Area Blog
“In 2003, the NFL was facing a problem in hiring not dissimilar to the one theatres are confronting today: its leadership didn’t look like the rest of its employees. That year, 70% of players were black, but only 6% of head coaches were.”

Chamber Music of a Very Different KindThe New York Times: Lindsay Brooke
With the help of computer modeling and mechanical gadgetry, automakers are tailoring exhaust notes to more precisely define the character of new models.

THE BENEFITS OF MUSIC AND DANCE

Brain Research After The Mozart EffectWQXR radio
A recent study published in the Journal of Neuroscience reveals that people who took music lessons during childhood seem to have a faster brain response to speech much later in life – even if the child musicians hadn’t picked up their instruments in decades.

Crowd-funding: Groundbreaking Record Label Your Music Company Strikes Gold in CaliforniaPRWeb
Recently, California became the fifth state to adopt the innovative, crowd-funding music business model that pays royalties, and transforms music fans into entrepreneurs. This platform allows people from anywhere in the world to invest money in an artist’s album, and receive a profit in return through royalty payments from the artist’s album and single sales.

SoundCloud Wants 1 Billion Users a DayEntrepreneur.com: Catherine Clifford
The Berlin-based online music platform has gone from being relative niche platform for techno musicians to an audio hub for everyone from the White House to…

Is Kickstarter the Way Forward for Creative Arts Funding?Yahoo News
Crowdfunding website Kickstarter has raised £17 million in its first year in the UK. A huge amount of this is going to producing music, computer games and films and some are calling it a revolution in the funding of the creative arts.

Five Reasons Why Your Nonprofit Must Prioritize the Mobile Web in 2014Nonprofit Tech for Good
The Mobile Web is often discussed as a future trend that nonprofits have time to prepare for, but the reality is that by the end of 2014, the majority of your supporters and donors will be viewing your website, email communications, blogs, and social media content on smartphones and tablets.